An Organization LA can be proud of! (Flickr/underactive)
24 hours before the Kings take the ice with an opportunity to win their first ever Stanley Cup, they make headlines for something completely unrelated to hockey. Monday night Angel Cortez a 14 month old boy was playing in front of his house with his dad, when a teenage boy rode up and open fired on the two. Mauro Cortez tried his best to shield his son, but the damage had already been done. Angel passed away later that evening. The Kings along with 2,000 Acts of Hope have donated $50,000 to help find Cortez’s killer. The Kings released this statement:
The announcement was made by Kings Governor Timothy J. Leiweke during the launch of the 2,000 Acts of Hope charitable initiative in Los Angeles earlier today.
“During such an exciting time such as this we can’t lose sight of the importance and responsibility we all share in keeping our community safe,” said Leiweke. “Our players and staff feel a tremendous obligation to do everything we can to help find who committed this terrible act of irresponsibility and hopefully this can contribute to the effort to acquire the information necessary to find who did this and make sure everyone knows this is unacceptable in our city.”
What is 2,000 Acts of Hope? Good question, it is a chartiable initiative that is being launched by AEG, which is the group that owns the Kings. This initiative is counting down the 2,000 days that will lead up to the opening of Farmers Field football stadium. This is a great cause to launch the initiative, and also highlights the wonderful things the Kings and their staff are doing to help make their community a better place.
The Cortez family was robbed of something very precious, something that no amount of money will ever bring back. Hopefully thanks to the Kings donation the killer will be found, that is the only thing that might bring this family piece of mind. Even with everything the Kings have going on right now, they still take the time to remind us what is really important, and with this act of kindness there is hope for a family in need of just that.
